← Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
The Deadbeat Club Edition, Part Two
00:55:02
How the two leading bands from Athens, Georgia transformed themselves from college-rockers in the ’80s to hitmakers by the ’90s
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- [00:00]
Chris Melanfield
You're listening ad free on Amazon Music. Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One series. On our last episode, We talked about the early years of the B52s and R.E.M. the two biggest bands ever to emerge from Athens, Georgia. That college and farming town 60 miles outside of Atlanta, launched an eclectic variety of bands, and it helped nurture multiple branches of the post punk family tree. The B52s form formed in 1977, they were signed to a major label by 1979, and they were scoring hit albums full of shimmying party tracks by 1980. I talked about how the Bee's unique combination of three vocalists, a skeletal rhythm section and the driving, quirky surf guitar of Ricky Wilson created a retro, futurist form of new wave. And as for REM. Their cracking rhythm section, Michael Stipes, elliptical lyrics and the jangly guitar of Peter Buck established a whole subgenre of indie rock. From their very first LP in 1983, REM were wowing audiences, topping critics polls and selling remarkably well for a band that was too independent and eccentric for Top 40 radio. By the mid-1980s, both bands had gone about as far as any act without major radio hits could go. Widespread critical acclaim, respectable sales and sonic fingerprints that were beginning to rub off on other acts. By 1985, each band had recorded three full length albums and an EP a piece. All of their albums made the middle rungs of Billboard's album chart. But their respective labels had much bigger plans for the B52s and and REMs a half decade later, at the dawn of the 1990s, each would be platinum sellers and pop hit makers.
- [03:19]
Fred Schneider
Shiny happy people.
- [03:25]
Chris Melanfield
How did these two bands, to paraphrase R.E.M get there from here? What changed in the second half of the 1980s? Each band went on its own distinct journey. Indeed, for several years it looked like one band might no longer exist. But just as vital as the two bands own growth was the evolution of popular music itself. The culture eventually came to them, and it was helped along by the formation of a whole new alternative rock subculture and even a Billboard chart to track it. And so, as we resume our story, that is where your hit parade marches today. Two different weeks in 1989 on Billboard's then new modern rock chart. The week ending January 21, 1989, when R.E.M. had two singles in the top 10, both from their album Green, the former Modern Rock 1 song Orange Crush, And the future Modern Rock number one stand.
- [04:51]
Kate Pearson
In the place where you live now Things think about direction, wonder why and.
- [04:58]
Chris Melanfield
Your hit parade marches seven months later to the weekend ending September 2, 1989, when the B52s replaced themselves in the modern rock top ten with a pair of singles from their album Cosmic Thing. Departing the top ten was the former Modern Rock number one, Channel Z. And moving into the top 10, future modern rock number one, Love Shack.
- [05:34]
Kate Pearson
If you see a faded sign at the side of the road that says 15 miles to the mer.
- [05:44]
Chris Melanfield
These songs were not only big hits on the Modern Rock chart, two of them would be new high water marks for each band on the Hot 100, the pop chart that we normally focus on in Hit Parade. The songs Stand and Love Shack made R.E.M. and the B52s respectively, bigger hitmakers than ever. But the Modern Rock chart didn't exist. In 1985, REM had begun to score modest hits on Album Rock Radio from their third album, Fables of the Reconstruction, an LP so frustrating to record it had nearly broken up the band. As for the B52s, they had yet to score a top 40 hit or break through at Album Rock radio, and by 1985, they hadn't issued an album in more than two years. In the fall of that year, the band finally revealed the reason for their long hiatus.
- [06:58]
Kate Pearson
Hi, my name, My name is Ricky and I'm a Pisces. I love computers and hot tamales.
- [07:05]
Chris Melanfield
On October 12, 1985, Ricky Wilson, the man who had pioneered the open tuning guitar sound that had underpinned the B52s from their very first single, died at age 32. The cause was complications from AIDS, making Wilson one of the diseases of earliest famous victims. Just 10 days after the passing of Hollywood legend Rock Hudson, Ricky Wilson had come out as gay to his friend Keith Strickland as far back as their teenage years, and he had been out in his private life for more than a decade. However, his HIV positive status was a different story. His own sister Cindy didn't know at first when Ricky received the diagnosis in 1983, during sessions for Whammy, only Strickland knew Ricky Wilson's secret. In 1985, AIDS was still the disease that dare not speak its name, and bandmate Kate Pearson later said it was typical of Ricky not to want the band to worry about him. At the time, the band was in the studio working on their fourth album.
- [08:21]
Cindy Wilson
We were writing Bouncing off the Satellites, and Ricky just got thinner and thinner. We suspected, but we didn't know. And one day he wasn't there at rehearsal. The next day Keith called me and said, ricky's dying of aids. And a few days later he passed away. And I mean, it was just a shock, like a bolt out of the blue. We didn't think we were going to continue. We just didn't really know. And I remember people saying, like, get another guitar player, you know. But we couldn't possibly think of going on without Ricky.
- [08:59]
Chris Melanfield
Ricky Wilson's death shocked the band. Cindy Wilson said she went into a long catatonic state, and the Bouncing off the Satellites album, which was largely complete, wouldn't come out for almost another year. When it finally reached record stores In September of 1986, the album would be the B52's worst performer, peaking at number 85 on the charts and generating no radio hits. Coming from a band that had long and proudly embraced its campy side, the album received its warmest embrace from the gay community, especially in dance clubs. The track Summer of Love was a serious club hit, peaking at number three on Billboard's club play chart.
- [09:48]
Fred Schneider
It's a summer of love, love, love I'm in love with the love, love.
- [09:54]
Chris Melanfield
Love Everyone transcends you and on mtv, the band did deliver a video for the single Girl From Ipanema Goes to Greenland.
- [10:06]
Fred Schneider
Girl from Ipanema Goes to GRE.
- [10:19]
Chris Melanfield
A lyrical homage to Antonio Carlos Jobim's the Girl From Ipanema. A jazz classic, it otherwise sounded Nothing like the B52's track received only modest MTV play. Again, the song did best in clubs, making the top 10 of Billboard's Club Play chart. By now the group had first fully adjusted to the sound of 80s techno pop, and Girl From Ipanema Goes to Greenland adeptly meshed the band's colorful kitsch and Pearson's high pitched vocals with pulsating synthesizers deep in the mix. You could even hear Ricky's angular guitar. With the Hot 100 in 1986, dominated by such female fronted acts as Banana Rama and Berlin, it should have been a good time for the B52s to mount a comeback. But they were so devastated from the loss of Ricky Wilson that they declined to tour for the album, which consequently received minimal promotion from Warner Bros. It was off the charts in 15 weeks, even less time than their ill fated David Byrne EP Mesopotamia. The B52s would not record again for another two years. The mid-80s were a wilderness period for the band that left REM to fly the flag for Athens Rock at The start of the second half of the.
- [12:00]
Kate Pearson
1980S, there's a problem that the science bargains.
- [12:11]
Chris Melanfield
And for the first time, the band, and particularly Michael Stipe, decided to wear their hearts on their sleeves and to be more openly political than ever before. Fall On Me was the lead single of Life's Rich Pageant, REM's 1986 studio album. It was an elegy for the environment, mourning the state of the sky in the age of acid rain and angry at the ruin of the planet at the hands of corporate interests. With moving harmony vocals by Mike Mills, the song featured the most direct lyrics Michael Stipe had written to date. It was also a sizable radio hit, though it only reached number 94 on the Hot 100 on the album rock chart. Fall On Me reached a lofty number five, REM's first top 10 hit on any Billboard chart. It didn't hurt that for their fourth album the band worked with producer Don Gaiman, who was most famous for producing a string of platinum albums for John Mellencamp, then known as John Cougar Mellencamp.
- [13:33]
Kate Pearson
Nobody told us it was gonna work out this way no, no, no, no, no.
- [13:41]
Chris Melanfield
With Gaiman behind the boards, Life's Rich Pageant was a radio friendly crossover for rem, but on their terms. For the album's second single, they went with a cover of a song by an obscure hippie rock band from Texas, the clique, who in 1960 had recorded a little ditty called Superman. Peter Buck and Michael Stipe, those expert record store crate diggers, revived this obscure track and gave the lead vocal to Mike Mills, with Stipe on backing vocals. Coming on the heels of fall on me, REM's Superman reached number 17 on the album rock chart in the fall of 1986. By the time Superman fell off the chart in early 87, Life's rich pageant had been certified gold by the Recording Industry association of America. It was REM's first gold album. In the years to come, Murmur, Reckoning and Fables of the Reconstruction would all be belatedly certified gold, and all of them on the indie label IRS Records, REM were now a staple on rock radio, if not on pop radio. So well established were the Athens foursome that when IRS issued an REM rarities compilation called Dead Letter Office in The spring of 1987, an early track by the band that had been left off the Chronic Town EP called Ages of youf spent a month on the album rock list and even scraped the rock charts top four. In all this time, however, R.E.M had not come close to cracking the top 40, the upper reaches of the pop chart, Billboard's Hot 100. It would take until the end of 1987 and a misunderstood pseudo love song to finally change all that.
- [16:11]
Kate Pearson
This one goes out to the one I love this one goes out to the one I've left behind.
- [16:25]
Chris Melanfield
Arriving at the end of summer 1987, the One I Love, the lead single from the fifth R.E.M album, Document, was widely perceived by as romantic. Lyrically, the song is very direct, even more so than the prior year's Fall on Me. It actually contains very few words at all. Perhaps most devastating, Michael Stipe calls the object of his affections quote a simple prop to occupy my time. In a subsequent interview with Musician magazine, Stipe called the song incredibly violent and added, it's very clear that it's about using people over and over again. Whether or not it was a love song, it was certainly passionate. It was also at last the band's top 40 breakthrough. Casey Kasem counted it down.
- [17:22]
Kate Pearson
Five debuts this week, and this one is by another favorite of the critics that finally hits the top 40. They're a four man band for Athens, Georgia called REM. Coming in at number 30 with the One I Love.
- [17:35]
Chris Melanfield
By December 1987, the One I Love was a top 10 hit, peaking at number nine on the album rock chart. It reached number two and stayed there for a month. As for the Document album, powered by the One I love, it became REM's first top 10 album in early November. It was gold less than two months after its release and platinum within four months. Even beyond this chart performance, Document was a pivotal record for the band in more ways than one. It was their first collaboration with producer Scott Litt, who would wind up producing a half dozen REM albums over the course of a decade. Litt helped galvanize the band's rock sound, particularly the thunderous drums of Bill Berry. Document also contained what remains REM's most unlikely pop standard. The follow up to the One I Love was a bizarre choice for a single that ultimately proved enduring. It is rotated by DJs at both classic rock radio stations and raucous dance parties to this day. Released as a single in early 1988, it's the end of the World as We Know it and I Feel Fine was about as radio unfriendly as a song gets. Its lyrics were spewed in a stream of consciousness by Michael Stite, who wrote the bulk of it, although other band members did make contributions, including people Peter Buck, who once met the late Rock critic Lester Bangs. Both Buck and Stipe were inspired by Bob Dylan's classic Subterranean Homesick Blues. You might recall that 1965 song from its iconic music video taken from the movie Don't Look Back, in which Dylan stands in an alleyway flipping cue cards containing the song's lyrics. In Subterranean Homesick blues, Dylan packs 322 words into a 2 1/2 minute song. By that yardstick, R.E.M. may have out Dylan'd Dylan it's the End of the World As we know it packs 614 words into just over four minutes, nearly twice as many as Subterranean Homesick Blues. By the way, if you're curious, 18 months after REM's single, Billy Joel issued his own verbose song We Didn't Start the Fire. And that future number one hit contains a relatively pithy 518 words, or about 100 less than REM's single. And Joel's song is nearly a minute longer anyway. Released as the second single from REM's document, End of the World didn't do all that well. It fell short of the top 40, peaking at number 69 on the Hot 100. On album rock Tracks, it topped out at a respectable not spectacular no. 16. It was a difficult record for regular radio rotation, but MTV loved it, even though the video contained no footage of the band members. Directed by James Herbert, the clip depicts a young skateboarder rummaging through piles of junk in an abandoned farmhouse. REM's it's the end of the World As We Know it is fun to sing along to, especially in large groups. It squeezes in references to comedian Lenny Bruce, the aforementioned Lester Bangs, and regardless of its low chart peak in its day, it's the End of the World as We Know it and I Feel Fine is now an REM staple and a radio perennial to this day. Nielsen Music reports that it was the third most played REM track on US terrestrial radio just last year. In 2017 alone, it's the End of the World As We Know it was spun nearly 28,000 times on the US airwaves.
- [21:53]
Kate Pearson
It's the end of the World as We Know it It's the end of the world.
- [22:00]
Chris Melanfield
The band themselves couldn't have foreseen this back in 1991, three years after its release, when REM played the live acoustic showcase MTV Unplugged. The producers at MTV requested that the band play End of the World. Michael Stipe had to ask someone at REM headquarters to fax him his own lyrics so he could read along but that changed in the 90s and 2000s. End of the World became one of the five most played songs at REM live shows. A remarkable legacy for a song that Peter Buck, speaking to Rolling stone back in 1987, said was, quote, either my favorite song on the record or my least favorite. I'm still deciding. Amazingly, REM Were still on an independent label. They were now a platinum level band on IRS Records, a label with limited resources. It was long past time for them to sign to the majors like the B52s a decade earlier. In 1988, the band chose Warner Bros. Records among the mega majors. Warner was regarded as an artist's first label, respected for its handling of such adventurous acts as Prince and Paul Simon. Meanwhile, as R.E.M. planned their major label debut, their peers from Athens, Georgia, the B52s were deciding if they still wanted to be a band, period. In the three years since the death of Ricky Wilson, Cindy Wilson had been mourning her brother. Out of respect for Ricky, the whole band had gone on an extended hiatus. In a sense, the ultimate decision to reform the B52s rested with Keith Strickland, Ricky's best friend since high school. As of 1988, even Strickland was not so sure.
- [24:01]
Keith Strickland
Didn't really think we were going to continue.
- [24:03]
Chris Melanfield
We didn't feel like there was any way we could.
- [24:05]
Keith Strickland
Because he was so important to the.
- [24:06]
Chris Melanfield
Band as a songwriter, Ricky wasn't just the band's primary songwriter. He was its lead guitarist, often its only guitarist. Strickland, while an adept guitar player in his own right, had mostly been behind the drum kit for the band's first decade. He would have to step out and step up, taking over lead guitar using the unusual open tunings he helped Ricky pioneer in the 70s. Ultimately, the band would hire session players to handle drums and other instruments, especially on the road. But more than solving the technical issues, Strickland helped reassure the band that they could continue. In interviews, Kate Pearson credited Keith with moving them forward.
- [24:54]
Cindy Wilson
I remember Keith saying he felt like, I want to write some more music. I want to do, you know, let's do another record. And we all said yes, but because we realized at this point how precious life was.
- [25:07]
Chris Melanfield
The other catalyst for the band was a producer who had spent the 1980s helping to develop the sound of New wave. Even though when he got his start as a performer in the 70s, he was all about disco. Nile Rogers was the co founder of Chic. He and Chic bandmate Bernard Edwards created irresistible guitar lines and metronomic bass lines that were adopted by a slew of rock bands in the 80s, Edwards and especially Rogers helped define the sound of new wave for many 80s rock bands. The sound of new wave is didn't just mean adapting and transforming the ethos of punk. It also meant fusing rock with disco rhythms. After Sheik went on hiatus in the early 80s, Nile Rogers struck out on his own as a producer, building one of the most amazing rosters of any producer in history, From David Bowie, if.
- [26:23]
Kate Pearson
You should fall into my arms, tremble.
- [26:28]
Chris Melanfield
Like to In Excess. To Duran Duran, why don't you use it, Try not to bruise it, and of course, Madonna. Improbably, Nile Rogers had alternative credibility too, having worked with Laurie Anderson. And gothic synth pop superstars Depeche Mode. In 1988, Rogers was working on a soundtrack to a forthcoming movie, Earth Girls Are Easy, an outer space spoof helmed by music video director Julian Temple. The movie was not a success, hampered by production delays that kept it out of theaters for nearly two years. But while neither the film nor its soundtrack were hits, the project connected Rogers for the first time with the reunited B52s, who wound up recording an appropriately spacey song for the film called Cosmic Theme. Cosmic Thing wound up being the title track of the B52's fifth album, recorded in 1988 and released in 1989. Nile Rogers would produce half of it, but he was so busy and so in demand that the band looked elsewhere for help with the other half. They wound up working with an eclectic producer named Don Was. He was about to win a Grammy as the producer of 1989's Album of the year, Nick of Time by Bonnie Raitt, and as a pop musician in his own right. Don WUZ served as the titular co leader of Was Not Was, a pop collective that was just scoring its first ever top 10 hit with Walk the Dinosaur. Like Nile Rogers, an African American multi instrumentalist and producer who helped shape the sound of numerous white rock acts, Don Was was a white man who had collaborated extensively with black performers, including in his own group. Each of these two producers was ideally suited for the blend of rock, pop and funk that formed the backbone of the B52's sound. And there was yet another bit of serendipity that made it a good time for the B52s to return to the scene. In September of 1988, Billboard magazine launched a new new chart called Modern Rock Tracks. It was the magazine's first ever chart to track airplay at college radio as well as certain commercial rock stations that were just starting to be called alternative for most of the past decade, the album Rock chart had tracked airplay at more mainstream rock stations. On the Modern Rock chart, the first ever number one song was Peekaboo, a catchy goth pop song by Suzy and the Banshees. While its sound was not all that close to the B52s. It was an alternative dance record fronted by a woman, a true alternative to the more male fronted songs dominating mainstream rock stations. The sound of Alternative radio in 1988 and 89 was danceable, kitschy and woman friendly, like the Primitives retro pop hit Crash. In short, there had never been been a better time for the B52s to come back. Of course, when it came to the charts and the B52s, the word comeback was something of a misnomer. In all that time, the band had never scored a top 40 hit. Their handful of Hot 100 hits had peaked in the chart's bottom half. And while the band had done some business in clubs and some rock stations had played them early on, Billboard had never recorded any B52's hits on its album rock chart. The 1988 creation of the Modern Rock chart changed all that it would track bands that by and large were too quirky for pop or mainstream rock radio. Remember, by 1988 even R.E.M. had only scored one top 40 hit with the One I Love. In the first year the Modern Rock chart existed, it was mostly dominated by British acts. It was the moment of peak goth bands like Susie and the Banshees, Love and Rockets and the Cure. American acts would break up the Brit parade on alternative radio occasionally, but not consistently. Well, except for two American rock bands, and they both hailed from Athens, Georgia, Orange Crush was the leadoff single to Green, REM's major label debut. The album was acclaimed by critics for broadening the band's sound without compromising. R.E.M. still sounded like R.E.M. Orange Crush was perhaps R.E.M's toughest track to date, a reference to Agent Orange, an herbicide chemical used widely in the Vietnam War that has been blamed for the disease and death of countless soldiers, both Vietnamese and American. Michael Stipe, raised in a military family, had learned about the chemical war agent from his father who had served in Vietnam. On. Although the band did not issue it as a single, making it ineligible for the Hot 100 at the time, Orange Crush was a radio smash. It topped album rock playlists for two weeks and alternative playlists for two months, reaching number one on the Modern Rock chart Less than three months after that chart launched, just as Orange Crush was exiting the top 10 REM were ready with the follow up reflecting a completely different side of their sound. Stand was in essence, a dance record. REM style. Michael Stipe literally instructs you how to do the dance in the lyrics, and the video showed multicultural groups of dancers performing the steps in unison. On the modern rock chart, R.E.M. very nearly replaced themselves on top. After Orange Cross Crush, the number one spot was occupied by a Julian Cope song for just one week in January 1989 before stand took over. More notably, Stand also became a pop hit, entering the top 40 in February of 89. By April, Stand had broken into the top 10, topping out at number six, REM's first major pop hit since the One I Love. Stand was the only top 40 hit from Green, but the album continued to generate hits at rock radio for the first half of 1989 that included the raucous Turn youn Inside out. And the cheeky pop song 89.
- [35:44]
Kate Pearson
About the weather.
- [35:51]
Chris Melanfield
The single was a meta commentary on the flimsiness of pop lyrics. Hello, how are you? Should we talk about the weather? But pop song 89 was most memorable for its video, a statement from Michael Stipe about his feminism and his fluid views on gender. Stipe appears topless in the clip, wearing only a colorful leotard. He is shimmying next to three female dancers who are wearing the same leotard and are also topless except on mtv, where female breasts could not be shown for broadcast. All four dancers, Michael Stipe included, have black bars covering their chests. It was a potent statement of solidarity and gender parody. The hits from REM's Green finally began to peter out in the late spring of 1989. But that's when the other band from Athens, Georgia, began storming the chart.
- [37:00]
Fred Schneider
Getting up to the static Static in my attic from Channel Z Getting up.
- [37:06]
Chris Melanfield
To the static Channel Z was the first official single from the album Cosmic Thing, and the most overtly political song the B52s had ever released. Keith Strickland called it an environmental anthem. In the dystopian lyrics, a fictional radio station, the titular Channels Z promises all static all day forever in a world brought down by corporate greed and human garbage, While its funky guitar riff, played by Strickland, sounded both like the late Ricky Wilson and the group's new friend and collaborator, Nile Rogers. Channel Z was actually produced by Don Was. It topped the modern rock chart for three weeks in the summer of 1989. But that was just a warm up for the B52's next single, their biggest hit ever.
- [38:18]
Fred Schneider
Love shack baby.
- [38:24]
Chris Melanfield
Love Shack was not only the ultimate party record, it was a triumph, a payoff for all the years after Rock Lobster and a showcase for the talents of every member of the B52s. Kate Pearson, Cindy Wilson and Fred Schneider all take solo vocal lines. The funky guitar harlex show off Keith Strickland's versatility as the band's new instrumental leader and the call and response lyrics make good on everything the band had built in its dozen year history. It has James Brown and Motown and punk and new wave and garage rock all baked in. It is proudly campy and all embracing in the video. Among the multicultural array of dancers in the funky little shack was a young drag performer named RuPaul making her first ever appearance. It was pure pop for now people, universal, progressive and joyous. It was also a smash. Hurtling into the Modern Rock Top 10 in September 1989, Love Shack topped the chart just two weeks later and stayed there for a month. Over on the Hot 100, Love Shack became the B52's first ever top 40 hit in late September and five weeks later it broke into the top 10. Finally, just before Thanksgiving 1989, Love Shack reached its high water mark of number three, one of the biggest pop hits of the year. It wound up riding the Hot 100 for 27 weeks in total, more than half a year, and it was certified gold. And the B52s were not done. Less than a month after Love Shack peaked, the band was back on both the modern rock chart and the Hot 100, where the prior hit was produced by Don Was and most prominently featured Fred Schneider. This single, produced by produced by Nile Rogers, would showcase Kate Pearson and Cindy Wilson with a sound as big as the great outdoors. Rome was another smash, actually a bigger hit on the pop charts than at alternative radio. On the modern rock chart, rome reached number six. But on the Hot 100, Rome matched Love Shack's peak position of number three in March of 1990. That same month, the Cosmic Thing album reached a new album chart peak of number four, by far the group's best performance on that chart. And it was certified double plus platinum. After a long road in which the B52s weren't even sure they wanted to record or perform anymore. They were now the top alternative rock act in America. With its double platinum sales, Cosmic Thing had even outsold the single platinum Green by R.E.M. green would eventually be certified double platinum. But Cosmic Thing remains the stronger seller now certified quadruple platinum for sales of 4 million copies before the run of hits from Cosmic Thing petered out. In 1990, the B52s issued one last single from the album, and while it wasn't their biggest hit, it was the most poignant. Deadbeat Club, which peaked at number 30 on the Hot 100 in the spring of 1990, was an homage to Athens, Georgia itself. To the bohemians, the queer kids, the so called deadbeats. The band remembered fondly from even before, before they were a band. Michael Stipe of REM Even made a brief cameo appearance in the music video. An endorsement from Athens. Other favorite sons. In the verses, Kate and Cindy harmonize together, offering wistful reminiscences of friends from decades gone by and the kind of fun you have on a budget when you are young, young and carefree. Quote, we were wild girls walking down the street. Wild girls and boys going out for a big time. It was a final reflective sigh that capped off the B52's most successful year ever as a band. Entering the 90s, REM and the D52s were twin pillars of Athens rock and crossover pop. Kate Pearson was especially in demand as a vocalist even outside of the B52s. In late 1990, she recorded a duet with punk legend Iggy Pop Candy that became his only top 40 hit ever, peaking at number 28 in early 1991.
- [43:56]
Fred Schneider
Can you can me can you I can let you go.
- [44:02]
Kate Pearson
All my life.
- [44:03]
Fred Schneider
You'Re haunting me I love you so.
- [44:09]
Chris Melanfield
Also in 1991, Pearson would actually team with REM on what became their biggest album of all times. Kate contributed vocals on two of the most prominent tracks on out of Time, R.E.M's seventh studio album. In fact, Pearson's voice is the very last thing you hear on that album. Closing out the gorgeous song Me in Honey. When it arrived in the spring of 91, out of time did the seemingly impossible. It topped the Billboard charts, outselling albums by Michael Bolton and Mariah Carey. It was powered by the band's biggest hit ever, the number four pop number one modern rock smash, Losing My Religion.
- [45:13]
Kate Pearson
That's me in the corner, that's me in the spot Like Losing My Religion.
- [45:29]
Chris Melanfield
And when it came time for a follow up single, REM went with another Kate Pearson collaboration, Shiny Happy People, and a bullant pop song featuring counterpoint vocals by Pearson, Michael Stipe and Mike Mills. It reached number 10 in the summer of 91. Though they have reach new commercial peaks together, the commercial trajectory of REM and the B52s would diverge for the rest of the 90s and beyond. The story of REM in the 90s could be its own podcast episode. They reached new heights that dwarfed their already amazing 1980s. After out of Time, R.E.M came back with one smash album after another, including 1992's Automatic for the People, which matched out of Time's quadruple platinum sales, And 1994's Monster, which took R.E.M back to the top of the album chart and empowered them to re sign to Warner Music with a blockbuster $80 million recording card.
- [47:01]
Kate Pearson
What's the frequency can at this yard?
- [47:11]
Chris Melanfield
REM Would continue recording for another decade and a half, sticking it out even after drummer Bill Berry left the band in 1997 on his own terms. Michael Stipe would also eventually come out, first as bisexual, then, as in his own preferred words, a queer artist.
- [47:33]
Keith Strickland
I felt forced to talk about my sexuality and, you know, my queerness just because I felt like I was being looked on as a coward for not talking about it. And I abhor that, you know, A I thought it was dead obvious to everyone all along, you know, I was wearing skirts and mascara in 1981, on stage and in photo shoots. All the lyrics that I've written for the most part, with a few exceptions, are really gender unspecific.
- [47:55]
Chris Melanfield
In 2007, REM as a foursome, including Bill Berry, was inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame in their very first year of eligibility.
- [48:06]
Keith Strickland
We are incredibly honored to be here tonight at the Waldorf Astoria. When we first put the band together, the only thing we really wanted to do was play New York City. And I would say, and we've done it tonight.
- [48:34]
Chris Melanfield
For the B52s, their height of dizzying popularity was much harder to follow up. Exhausted by the demands placed placed on them after their big comeback, Cindy Wilson took a hiatus from the band in the early 90s. And so the B52's follow up to Cosmic Thing was recorded as a trio. Released in 1992, the album Good Stuff was a considerably smaller hit, but it did about as well on the charts as their early 80s albums, reaching the top 20 and going gold. The album's title track, Good Stuff, was only a modest pop hit, reaching number 28 on the Hot 100, but it topped the Modern Rock chart for four weeks.
- [49:33]
Fred Schneider
Give us some of that good stuff.
- [49:35]
Kate Pearson
The Big Dipper sure ain't big enough to hold all of your dang good stuff.
- [49:43]
Chris Melanfield
Having achieved success, they could scarcely have imagined, either when they started the band in 1977 or when they almost broke up in 1986, the B52s took a long hiatus, this time in a much happier place. The band did occasional soundtrack work, contributing a track to 1998's Rugrats movie and even making a cameo appearance in the 1994 film the Flintstones as prehistoric rock band the BC52s Flintstones beat the Flintstones.
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Kate Pearson
They're the modern Stone Age family from.
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Fred Schneider
The town of Bedrock.
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Chris Melanfield
There are paints in their personal lives. Three of the four remaining members eventually wound up coming out Keith Strickland came out as gay in the early 90s. In 1996, Fred Schneider issued a solo album with indie rock producer Steve Albini, and he too eventually came out as gay. In the early 2000s, Kate Pearson, who had previously been in a long relationship with a man, began a relationship with a woman after gay marriage was legalized in the United States. The two were wed in 2015. After the 90s, the B52s would not issue new music until 2008's Funplex, their first full album in 16 years. When it debuted on the Billboard album chart all the way up at number 11. It immediately became their second highest charting album ever, a sign of the ongoing affection for the band. Three years later, the B52s recorded a live show at the Classic center in their hometown of Athens, Georgia, in commemoration of their 34 years as a band. The concert would be issued later that year on DVD and Blu Ray. The Athens show came just one year before Keith Strickland announced he was retiring from the road. Although Kate Pearson, Fred Schneider and Cindy Wilson continue to Tour as the B52s to this day, at the 2011 show, the the centerpiece of the concert was the song the band had written about their hometown deadbeat club performing for the home team. Kate, Cindy, Fred and Keith exude pure joy on stage. The Athens crowd cheers loudly for this song that is about them, the B52's homage to a southern haven where they and their friends could be weird to together find themselves and dance in the garden in torn sheets in the rain. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Hit Parade. If you missed part one of our story about the bands from Athens, Georgia, be sure to download it in your podcatcher of choice. Special thanks to critic and reporter Annie Zaleski, whose research on both REM and the B52s was invaluable to me. My Hit Parade producer is Chris Barube and we had help this episode from Danielle Hewitt and Dan Barube. The managing producer of Slate Podcasts is June Thomas. Our senior producer is TJ Raphael and Steve Lichtai is the executive producer of Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture Gabfest feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening, and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. Until then, keep on marching on the one I'm Chris Melanfield.